Final Fantasy III is the most recent FF I played for the first time. It was on sale, I wanna say, around Christmas on Humble Bundle, so I bought the Steam version in 2014. I got stuck on a boss and put it down for about a year, and I was quite happy I came back to it. The gameplay was fun, the story was great for a game it's (remade) time, and the OST was stunning. There was something about it that was immensely charming, and I loved every minute of it. Anything outside of Hein's Castle, at least.
This time, though, I'm going to change it up a lot. I'm running through the World of Darkness with my long time friends of over 20 years. A few years ago, we had a plan to play D&D. Like many such plans, it fell through. I've tried several times to give it a go again, but I've pretty much given up. Fortunately, RPGs make for a decent substitute. The Pixel Remaster of FFIII would have been the best version to play as it removes all the new story elements and characterization of the DS/Steam version, but I'm not shilling out $15 for a slightly different copy of a game I already own! So I'll be ignoring all the fun bits and making us boring warriors of light/darkness. Or I'll try to, at least. There's a lot of it early on, but it should even out tomorrow and beyond. Drew Carmello, Xander Carmello, Cid, and Triton are gonna try to save the world again. I'll be doing it as a diary because, hey, it's me!
"Dear, Diary.
Let me tell you a story. This could be my last chance. My dad is a blacksmith at Kazaz, or, was, I should say. He and the rest of the villagers recently became translucent. Apparently, it's because of a curse. But I wasn't there. I don't want to be a blacksmith, so I ran away. I ran into the desert to make sure no one would find me, and I stumbled upon an airship. I lived there for a while until two brothers showed up one day, Drew and Xander. They're from the village to the north, Ur, and they told me a guy named Cid said they could use this airship. They're going to break the curse over Kazaz by beating up someone named Djinn, so I decided to join up. Where else was I going to go? They believe the key to undoing this is located in Castle Sasune.
En route to the castle, they told me about themselves. Drew found a cave where he beat up goblins for a while until he had to fight a Land Turtle. It was weak to ice. After that, a crystal spoke to him and said he was chosen for something. There are a few others out there, so that's a side mission for him. Xander, on the other hand, gets bullied. He went to Kazaz, the ghost town, to prove that he's tough.
We finally reached Sasune, and they're under the same curse as Kazaz. The guard outside, Triton, told us this. He was away on some order, so he didn't get affected. We followed him to the King, and he told us Princess Sara took the Mythril Right, the item required to break the curse, to the Sealed Cave. That cave is where Djinn, the warlock who did all this, lives. Triton joined us to help save Sara and the rest of the kingdom.
The Sealed Save is a tough place. Sara is probably dead, right? Serves her right, being named Sara and all that. Never trust a woman named Sara, with or without an "H." We had to backtrack a bit to get more experience. We went back to the Alter Cave to get a bunch of stuff Drew missed when he was spelunking, then we hit up the west wing of the castle. We found a really rad Wright Killer sword I'll be using for a while. I taught myself Cure and Blizzard, and we gave it one more go. It was hard, but we persevered. The King gave us a warning about a "Skeleton Key," which was a dead guy on the ground. It opened a secret passage. On the other side was Sara, and her sultry but fancy AF, bra.
She was thrilled to see us, especially Triton. She tagged along because she has the Ring and helped in any way she could. She would randomly show up in battle to cast Aero or heal us, so she's actually a welcome addition to the team. So we kept on digging down until we saw a fat, yellow person on a carpet. This is Djinn! Sara brought the Mythril Ring before him, but it didn't phase him. He then said that being infused with darkness removes all weaknesses. We have doubts about the truthfulness of that statement, so we finally have a boss battle!
Djinn was still weak to ice damage. Good thing I also taught myself Blizzard! Drew had an Arctic Wind leftover from his trip into the Alter Cave and used it. I don't like that it was better than my magic! Regardless, Djinn died in one round. We began to break the ghost curse, but we suddenly became ghostlike ourselves. Someone knew what was going on, and they bid Sara adieu. Suddenly, we were teleported back to the Crystal. It spoke to all of us, saying we were the ones who were meant to save the world. We became infused with its power. We have much to do in the future, but we need to learn some things first.
Drew became a monk, which he was doing throughout the Sealed Cave. But now it's official.
Xander became a thief. It doesn't fit him.
I became a Red Mage because look at my hat!
Triton became a warrior. If he's a knight, it just made sense.
From there, we returned to Sasune. Sara finished the ritual by throwing the Mythril Ring into the waters beneath the castle. Around the keep, we could see the people return to themselves. The King and his mighty mustache thanked us and bid us good luck on our journey. Sara, though, was reluctant. She's really into Triton, I guess. As we returned the Kazaz, though, she did see us off and hoped for our safe return!
I don't want to go to Kazaz, but I did anyway!. We spoke to Cid, who suggested a Mythril Ram to break through the blockage in the valley. The only person who could build such a thing, though, is my dad. So we had no choice but to talk to him. He wouldn't listen to me and my wishes, so I had to help him. I mean, I'm glad I did, but I didn't want to. We were able to build and mount it. I stayed back to double check everything was correct when he returned to the village to get everyone else. When they got to the airship, I just stuck around.
We managed to break through the blockage, but it cost us the airship. We had to hoof it back to Cannan, home of Cid. We found an elixir just lying in a chest in the middle of the city. Good thing, too, because Ms. Cid, Cid's wife, was ill. We cured her, and Cid gave us a bunch of stuff in his basement as thanks. He also alluded to something, so remind me to ask him about it later. Why does he know us? More importantly, he wants to build us another airship. He can only make the hull, so we need to ask another King about the engine. Argus, I think his name was.
Word around town was a man named Desche ran off with the last Mini Scroll. It's a magic spell I'd like to learn. He ran away with a poor village girl's heart, so we need to find him. He ran off to the Dragon Mountain, which is probably dumb, but we're gonna chase him down.
But first, a good night's rest."
I got the preamble, the opening credits, and the first job classes out of the way. I think most of the new plot is passed as well, so it should be easier to write going forward.
One last reason I wanted to do this with my friends is because I think they hate me. It's 2021, and there's a lot of reasons for them to do so. I'm not mad at them, maybe slightly disappointed, but I understand. I went to college in a religious red state, so I get it. I just feel like this might be the last opportunity I get to do anything with them, even if they're not really here. If you're reading this, tell your friends that you care about them. And hope they haven't bought into any conspiracy theories.
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